By Dean Larson

Photos Courtesy of Motostalgia

Alfa Romeo spent much of the 1960s perfecting the Giulia series, culminating in the GTAm, which would go down history as one of Alfa’s most iconic racecars. The GTAm was built by Alfa’s competition department, Autodelta, and would serve as a test bed for pushing Alfa’s four cylinder twin-cam engine to peak performance.

The GTAm traces its lineage through the GTA, an ultra-lightweight two-door coupe utilizing lightweight glass, wheels, suspension components and sheet metal. Thanks to a new increased minimum weight rule, most of these advantages were not used in the GTAm. Instead, the GTAm was based off the U.S. 1750 GTV. The U.S. GTV utilized SPICA fuel injection instead of carburetors to comply with U.S. emissions, however, the fuel-injection system was found to have great racing potential. The GTAm started out with a standard 1750 engine block, which was improved to 1,985 cc and later to 1,999 cc through the use of a monosleeve instead of individual cylinder sleeves. The GTAm also used Alfa’s twin-plug, or twin-spark cylinder head, which used two spark plugs per cylinder. The final product was a 2,000 cc engine that could produce 240 horsepower, up over 130 hp from the standard GTA engine. Around 40 original GTAms were built by Autodelta and other garages between 1969 and 1971. 

Offered for auction at Amelia Island by Motostalgia auctions, is this 1969 Alfa Romeo GTAm tribute car. Starting out as a standard 1750 Coupe, the Alfa was treated to various performance and visual upgrades in the GTAm spirit. It looks like the Alfa’s standard 1,750 cc engine has been upgraded with many parts from the 2,000 cc twin-spark engine. A full piston set, oversized valves and an 11.5:1 compression ratio bring the engine well over factory 1750 specs. Suspension upgrades and a full roll cage have been added to the chassis and four-piston disc brakes are used on all four corners. The exterior of the Alfa looks the part with bulging fenders covering wide race rubber and a vented Plexiglas rear windshield. The low-hanging skid plate over the large-capacity oil pan is nice touch also.

This GTAm tribute is expected to bring between $45,000 and $65,000, and that’s probably accurate. Original GTAms can be valued at over $300,000, such as this example offered by Bonhams in June of 2015, and nice original 2000 GTVs can reach the mid-forties, such as this one recently sold on BringaTrailer.com. If bidders show up at Amelia Island, we’d expect to see this GTAm tribute sell in the upper half of the auction estimate.